I'm playing the tutorial. The dwarf is the party leader engaged with a rat. Other player is the elf, with no engaged monsters. (I used the dwarf's attack power to engage with her monster, pull it away and kill it.)

There are two face down monsters in the shadows.

It's the enemy phase.

First, the dwarf activates the rat (advance, inflict) so it does one point of damage to the dwarf. I exhaust the rat.

Here's what the rules say about enemy activation:

ENEMY ACTIVATIONAfter all heroes have activated, they take turnsactivating enemies. Starting with the party leader andproceeding clockwise, each hero activates one readiedenemy. Heroes continue taking turns until all enemiesin play are exhausted.

CHOOSING AN ENEMYWhen choosing an enemy to activate, the active heromust first choose a readied enemy with which he isengaged, if possible. If he is not engaged with anyenemies, or if all enemies with which he is engaged areexhausted, he activates a readied enemy in the shadows.If there are no readied enemies engaged with him orin the shadows, he skips his turn, and the next hero inclockwise order activates an enemy

So what happens after my dwarf gets attacked by the rate? Since my elf has no engaged monsters, does she flip over an enemy in the shadows? I did that and got a goblin archer (retreat, inflict, inflict) - the manual says to ignore retreat if the enemy is already in the shadows, so does it then engage with my elf and attack twice?

And after the goblin archer is exhausted, since my dwarf has no active, engaged enemies (rat is exhausted), does he flip over the other face down card that's in the shadows?

Very confused as you can see. I have no idea how or when face down enemies in the shadows reveal themselves. And if enemies come out of the shadows and immediately inflict (thus exhausting themselves) won't the heroes just continue pulling monsters from the shadows on the very first enemy turn?

As the rules says: "If he is not engaged with anyenemies, or if all enemies with which he is engaged areexhausted, he activates a readied enemy in the shadows."

Yes, the elf flips over one of the monsters and n the shadows and activates it.Since the goblin archer doesn’t have advance, it doesn’t engage. It just does the actions listed on the card. Since it is already in the shadows, retreat does nothing. Then it inflicts twice.After the goblin archer activates, the dwarf would then flip over and activate the other monster.

The elf's deadly shot ability allows her to engage with an enemy before attacking. Just curious - what would be the point of that? If she attack an enemy in the shadows I'm assuming she doesn't have to roll a black combat die, correct?

Also, with the dwarf's stubborn resolve ability, what does add two shields mean? Are they stored there until he needs them in combat to block wounds?

Generally, the elf wouldn't bother engaging the enemy first, to avoid rolling a black die. You may want to do it situationally, such as to pull a monster away from another character. Also, if I remember correctly, there is a monster that can't be damaged if it is in the shadows.

The two shields on the dwarf means that it will protect against two damage done by rolling hits on the black dice used in that action. You cannot store them. You roll black dice for every monster engaged with you during an action.

This thread really helped me understand the game as well. The rulebook is very unclear about when you flip over enemies face down in the shadows. It seems like there is a great deal of over-complicated wording in the rulebook that makes you second guess what you are reading.

I had the very same question, and even the FAQ doesn't answer it sufficiently, it just repeats the rulebook. But, to be clear, in the Enemy Phase, players take turns activating enemies, first engaged in front of them, then face-up in the shadows, then face-down in the shadows, in that order, until all enemies are activated.

Even if a hero has three enemies already engaged with them, they STILL activate face-down enemies, who will deal their damage, then return to the shadows face-up ready for next turn.